The Space Rapid Capabilities Office

05/28/2026

Several Space RCO leaders spoke at the NewSpace Nexus State of the Space Industrial
Base conference today. Dr. Kelly Hammett provided a Keynote address, which teed up the panel on Industrial Base Readiness moderated by Dr. Jaime Stearns, Space RCO Strategic Communications Director, with panel members consisting of:
Mr. Arthur Grijalva, SpaceWERX Director
Col Owen Stephens, Space RCO Director of Contracting
Dr. Russ Teehan, SDA Technical Director, and
Dr. Peter Wegner, BlackVe Co-Founder and CTO

05/18/2026

A reminder to our international audience to sign up for the International AMA no later than 5/27!

Thanks to all who participated in the Ask-Me-Anything this week. We are having a third one specifically to answer questions from international companies who want to understand more about the challenges that sometimes arise in doing business with US entities. If interested in participating, please complete the interest survey in the link posted in the first comment.

05/13/2026

Thanks to all who participated in the Ask-Me-Anything this week. We are having a third one specifically to answer questions from international companies who want to understand more about the challenges that sometimes arise in doing business with US entities. If interested in participating, please complete the interest survey in the link posted in the first comment.

05/05/2026

Thank you to Theresa Hitchens from Breaking Defense and to Sandra Erwin from SpaceNews on their recent coverage of our Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Direct-to-Phase II (D2P2) awards! We are excited to be pushing the vision forward for all USSF satellites being able to know when they’re being targeted. Direct links to articles in the comments below.

04/22/2026

Calling innovative companies with mature Low Size, Weight, Power, and Cost (Low SWaP-C) sensing or sense-making technology that could be used to provide a Tactical Awareness Payload for Proliferated, Agile Satellites (TAPPAS)! We have posted a Request for Information (RFI) on Sam.gov that will be used to identify potential vendors with mature technologies or products suitable for a Direct to Phase II (D2P2) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) effort. Requirements are CUI; please see the Sam.gov posting for instructions to request access. Questions will be received until 1 May 2026; responses are due NLT 11 May 2026.

https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/121ea4d2a7c5486ba097c195126c5ac2/view

04/14/2026

Yes! We are at the Space Symposium! Come see us at Booth 224!

03/05/2026

Space RCO is incredibly proud to announce that our Storm Cloud team was awarded the “Flexibility in Acquisition Team Award” at the Department of War level! This lean, interdisciplinary team (~7 personnel) successfully accomplished a range of masterful acquisition actions that will soon complete delivery of an enterprise-level ground-based system, fully integrated with its semi-autonomous and cloud-enabled Mission Control system for full mission ex*****on less than 3 years from program start.

The team dealt swiftly with initial contractor failures resulting in a PEO termination and subsequent new competition, the results of which will yield twice the capability while saving an estimated $1B! The team’s hard work is ushering in a new era of ground-based systems to protect US space superiority through unmanned, cloud-enabled, and modular Mission Control constructs that will operate hundreds of units with one-quarter the traditional manning requirements, while also meeting USSF imperatives for increased automation. Congratulations to the entire Storm Cloud team—past and present—on this incredibly competitive and well deserved award!

03/04/2026

We were glad to see Sandra Erwin highlighting the strategic updates we’re making to our acquisition of proliferated and relocatable satellite ground stations. Disaggregating requirements and expanding the industry base will allow us to continue to deliver the most needed capabilities quicker, shore up vendor base resilience, and better prepare for surge production at scale.

Space Force rethinks satellite ground station strategy

03/02/2026

Space RCO will once again be meeting with select companies at private meetings at the Penrose House during the upcoming Space Symposium on Wednesday, 15 April and Thursday, 16, April. We only have ~22 meeting slots available, and will curate the meetings based on our review of information submitted through this intake form.

This year we will once again focus our meetings on vendors with mature, key technologies of interest to us for supporting Dynamic Space Operations (DSO) for Orbital Warfare (OW).

Key tech of interest includes:

1. On-board sensors (threats from both ground and space, local area awareness)
2. Bi-modal propulsion, and
3. Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) technology.

We are additionally open to hearing company offerings for combat effect payloads, using concepts discussed in the Space Warfighting Framework.

Priority for Penrose meetings will go to companies with whom we have not met before. For companies with tech of interest but with whom we’ve previously met, you will still be considered for meetings on Monday or Tuesday with select, individual Space RCO leaders.

We will cut off requests for meetings on 20 March so we have adequate time for scheduling. Please do NOT send requests or materials to our “Innovations mailbox;” we will only consider requests submitted through this form.

02/26/2026

Our Director and PEO, Dr. Kelly Hammett, enjoyed sitting down with the Mitchell Institute’s Col (ret) Charles Galbreath, Maj Gen Anthony Mastalir (USSPACECOM J3), Scott Forney of General Atomics and Ryan Tintner of Northrop Grumman at AFA today to discuss Dynamic Space Operations.